I think my tank magically cycled.

[MatthewScars]

I set up the tank 3 weeks ago. Half the rock was cooked, and Half was dried 'pre-cycled' macro rock from macrorock.com. I added about 80 pound of sand.

I let it go for a week. No spike or anything. Then Lord Deanos suggested putting in a shrimp. So i put in 3 jumbo shrimp for good measure. The Ammonia spiked to like ~.25-.5. But now, 5 days later, here are my readings:

Ammonia is now trace and no Nitrite. What is going on? Ive honest been half ass watching it cycle so i dont have super accurate readings. So how can i tell if its done or didnt even start?

 

[bad coffee]

what are your nitrates?

If you didn't have much die-off from your rocks or the pre-cured marco stuff you could be fine.

B

 

[Wes]

with "cooked" rock and "pre-cycled" dry rock it's possible that there wasnt enough die off to cause the "spike" and the "cooked" rock had enough bacteria to process the ammonia/nitrite from the shrimp pretty quickly.

i'd go very slowly w/ the stocking. Add a hardy small fish and wait a few weeks to make sure everything is looking good before adding the next. Let the bacterial population catch up w/ the bioload...

or take a whiz in the tank and let the bacteria eat that

 

[Yen]

Give it another day or two and read the nitrite level again. It may take some time for nitrite to appear after your ammonia goes down. Normally you'd have the ammonia spike, goes down then your nitrite spikes then goes down.

I would wait for 6 weeks before adding fish to make sure the hitch-hiking ich parasites die off and QT every new fish. You can always enjoy watching your shrimps while waiting:splitspin

Yen

 

[MatthewScars]

Nitrate, i dont know the level. Ill test later. Im going upstate this weekend, so we'll see whats down on monday. But i mean 3 jumbo shrimp in the tank for 3-4 days SHOULD be enough to spike the hell out of the ammonia and start a cycle.

Anyone have that rare $600 3 stripe damsel?

 

[juiceguy]

i purchased some of that pre-cycled marco rocks and it took about a month to really cure it. the first week was great, then i my levels spiked and you could see the water color change from clear to a darkened haze. i believe these rocks have a lot of nutrients stored inside them so be careful and check your phosphate levels before assuming it is all good.